Bush's plan to dismantle the federal government, agency by agency...

[marmar]

Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2006-06-27 22:29. Evidence
By OSHA GRAY DAVIDSON, http://www.rollingstone.com

With a vote of hand-picked lobbyists, the president could terminate any federal agency he dislikes If you've got something to hide in Washington, the best place to bury it is in the federal budget. The spending plan that President Bush submitted to Congress this year contains 2,000 pages that outline funding to safeguard the environment, protect workers from injury and death, crack down on securities fraud and ensure the safety of prescription drugs. But almost unnoticed in the budget, tucked away in a single paragraph, is a provision that could make every one of those protections a thing of the past.

The proposal, spelled out in three short sentences, would give the president the power to appoint an eight-member panel called the "Sunset Commission," which would systematically review federal programs every ten years and decide whether they should be eliminated. Any programs that are not "producing results," in the eyes of the commission, would "automatically terminate unless the Congress took action to continue them."

The administration portrays the commission as a well-intentioned effort to make sure that federal agencies are actually doing their job. "We just think it makes sense," says Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, which crafted the provision. "The goal isn't to get rid of a program -- it's to make it work better."

In practice, however, the commission would enable the Bush administration to achieve what Ronald Reagan only dreamed of: the end of government regulation as we know it. With a simple vote of five commissioners -- many of them likely to be lobbyists and executives from major corporations currently subject to federal oversight -- the president could terminate any program or agency he dislikes. No more Environmental Protection Agency. No more Food and Drug Administration. No more Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Ronald Reagan once observed, 'The closest thing to immortality on this earth is a federal government program,' " says Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from Texas who has been working for the past nine years to establish a sunset commission. "We need it to clear out the deadwood."

The rest of the article is at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12445

[LiberalPartisan]

1. I get your point - but...

There are all kinds of programs that ought to be axed. We could start with subsidizing the oil companies to the tune of several billion dollars a year.

[marmar]

2. True, but I suspect BushCo's goal is much more sinister...

than trimming a few unnecessary programs. And subsidies to big oil WON'T be what they decide to cut.

[LiberalPartisan]

5. Oh...I completely agree!! n/t

[RufusEarl]

3. It's been the plan of republicans,

from the get go. This has always been what republicans wanted, and they've made no secret of this fact. I can't understand why citizens of this country vote for these people, they have never done one thing for the working class or the underclass in this country.

I believe the RNC sees the end coming and they plan on destroying as much of our federal government as they can, what disturbers me is the fact that smart powerful people are letting this happen without a fight.

[Monkeyman]

4. He wants to privatize the VA

All signs point to outsoucing the VA

[Disturbed]

6. The Neo Fascists want to privatize all Govt Agencies.

Corporate control with Neo Fascist Govt. control is their goal.